Keywords: blouse
Item 18741
Handmade challis blouse, Houlton, ca. 1885
Contributed by: Aroostook County Historical and Art Museum Date: circa 1885 Location: Houlton Media: Wool
Item 111085
Sailor suit and blouse line sheet, Paris, 1936
Contributed by: Maine Historical Society Date: 1936 Location: Kennebunkport; Paris Media: Ink on paper with fabric
Exhibit
Women at the turn of the 20th century were increasingly involved in paid work outside the home. For wage-earning women in the Old Port section of Portland, the jobs ranged from canning fish and vegetables to setting type. A study done in 1907 found many women did not earn living wages.
Exhibit
Fashionable Maine: early twentieth century clothing
Maine residents kept pace with the dramatic shift in women’s dress that occurred during the short number of years preceding and immediately following World War I. The long restrictive skirts, stiff collars, body molding corsets and formal behavior of earlier decades quickly faded away and the new straight, dropped waist easy-to-wear clothing gave mobility and freedom of movement in tune with the young independent women of the casual, post-war jazz age generation.
Site Page
Historic Clothing Collection - 1900-1910 - Page 1 of 3
"Nor are the dainty blouses (called waists) with standing collars, pin tucking, and lace insert detailing well represented."
Site Page
Historic Clothing Collection - 1900-1910 - Page 3 of 3
"Another dress with reduced bodice blousing is made of mulberry colored heavy satin, with a fitted tailored front pleated skirt and no flare, a sign…"
